I think I have finally decided that I am a night person. I’m sitting here, trying to avoid going to bed, but yawning every minute and knowing that inevitably I am going to lose this battle. But I fight, and I put it off as long as I can.
I’m not sure when this happened. I know when I was a teen I was always a night person- I would stay up late listening to music and reading as long as I could. But then as an adult, for a while, I bought into the healthy wealthy and wise nonsense, and made sure I was up at the crack of dawn, ready to challenge the day. Again, I’m not sure when or how this happened, although maybe I just instinctively realized I would never become healthy, wealthy, or wise, but now I actively fight going to bed.
I like it at night. It’s relaxing, and all the noise of the day dies down. There is no more political bullshit being churned out, it is quiet, it is cool (really big in the summer), the emails stop, and the dogs are tired and I get to do my favorite thing in the world, which is to just sit there with two dogs on my lap and relax.
It might be the lack of people, too. No one is walking by my house, and no one is calling me to do things I don’t want to do or don’t care about. There is a reason I am 41 and single- I really do a very shitty job at sharing my time except when I want to or pretending that I am interested in things I am not. But after ten o’clock, which is some sort of agreed upon hour after which it is rude to call someone unless there has been a death, no one calls to harass me. The only people calling are people I want to hear from, people I know well and who know I will not be offended by a call at night, and they occasionally have fun ideas.
I guess, in some sense, getting up at sunrise has the same benefits- no one calls before 8 am in polite society, and waking up and having that morning coffee and chilling with the pets is nice, but it just isn’t the same. Or maybe it is a seasonal thing- night for winters, mornings for spring and summer. I do love getting my gardening done early in the morning in summers, before the heat, when there is a nice dew on the ground. On the other hand, if I decide I want to do something at night, there is all sorts of mayhem I can get into at 10 pm. Not so much at 6 am.
Or maybe I just like being left the fuck alone. And I am rambling again.
JR
It’s not the same as waking up early: it isn’t socially acceptable to start drinking in the early morning, but it’s perfectly fine at night. BIG difference.
Little Boots
You’re awesome.
and so is the nightime.
I know, I know, you didn’t want me. but sometimes me is what you get.
Hope your Dad’s okay, by the way.
Little Boots
and dogs are awesome too.
fbihop
I’m the exact same way. Even when I absolutely know that I should be going to sleep, I stay up. Routinely until 2 or 3 am. Or if I have to get up early (which is 8am or earlier to me) the next day I will stay up until 1 am. Which is ridiculous because I’m the kind of person who can’t function on less than 8 hours of sleep.
Yet hear I am drinking a tall Tecate and on the internet instead of getting ready for bed.
Karen
I’m lucky because I’m nocturnal and because I’m able to work remotely from home I can work from 6PM to 2 AM. So I know how how you feel, John. I used to have to work days and was sleepy all the time so it’s nice to be able to work with my body clock.
Little Boots
@fbihop:
ain’t it the truth?
oh, well, we can’t help ourselves sometimes.
General Stuck
I like to boogy
JR
I suppose I’m okay at getting up and going to bed at reasonable hours if I have something to get up for, but not having worked since April I really don’t see why it makes a difference if I write job applications and drink Belgian sour ales at 3 p.m. or 3 a.m.
Little Boots
don’t take this the wrong way, JR, but how does someone get by not working since April? what were you doing before that?
Little Boots
you know, sorry, that was rude, don’t answer JR, unless you want to.
Arclite
Dude, if you can’t sleep, I recommend masturbation. Before they outlaw it.
srv
The blog is nice, but with all this extra time on your hands, maybe you should write a book.
I’m sure the masses would buy it and come up with a title.
You could self-publish and sell it in the store. For the pets.
JR
My wife has a full-time job, and I “earn” a decent amount in investment income. But I’m still bored out of my mind and wasting my very expensive and prestigious law degree, and my student loan debt and mortgage don’t really seem to be shrinking.
Before April, I was a communications consultant earning my J.D., mostly working for House and Senate campaigns but sometimes doing nonprofit work. And I received a small stipend for a couple of legal internships I had.
Mnemosyne
I definitely tend towards night-owlery and always have. It’s fucking torture to have to get up any earlier than 7 am (though I did do it for about a year when I moved 30 miles away from my job at the time).
At one low point, I got into a cycle where I would go to sleep at 7 am and wake up at 4 pm, but I think that was clinical depression and unemployment, not necessarily my natural cycle.
Shinobi
Whenever I have more than 3 days off work my sleeping schedule migrates to something like 2-10. Sadly most work environments frown on coming in at 11.
Suffern ACE
@Stuck – I believe the next line is “baby. She says.” this isn’t the gay anthem thread. Or is it…
ulee
Man across the street getting in bed at 3am after going to the bathroom, “I see that Cole’s lights are on again. Up all night that one is..” Wife murmurs, “He’s an odd one alright.” “Probably cutting up dead bodies,”mutters the husband.
John Cole
@srv: What on earth would I write about?
Little Boots
@srv:
or you could just respond to comments.
I mean, I know you get pissed sometimes, but people actually like you here, on your blog, and it is actually nice to hear from you.
You’re very prickly, but you’re also a very interesting guy, obviously, with a lot to say.
Rachel in Portland
John, you crack me up.
Little Boots
oh, goddamit, I KNEW you were going to respond before I posted that rant,
oh well.
Suffern ACE
Write what you know. Although maybe not. Write as if you know. There’s more money in that these days. They might even shill your book in the Atlantic if you do that.
Mnemosyne
Probably my all-time favorite use of the song.
dance around in your bones
I had the most interesting dream about you the other night, John Cole, but I don’t think I will share the details.
We like your rambling.
slag
@John Cole: The process of evolution.
Mnemosyne
@Suffern ACE:
Gay anthem thread would have moar Gloria Gaynor.
srv
@John Cole: Crap, GG must have 5 or 6 books by now. Markos has an empire.
Hell, Adam Corolla writes books about laying carpet and manages to be sometimes funny. Just lay off any sexist urges. This could be a group thing. FP’ers and followers could come up with chapter topics.
1) Animals
2) Doing Housework Naked
3) White People
4) Crazy People
5) Fucking Drones
6) People I’ve had post on my blog
7) Pixel Personalities I’ve Learned From
8) Trapped on the Roof of Life, it took a Village
There, 8 chapters.
Little Boots
@slag:
actually, YOUR evolution is kind of an interesting subject. It would probably be worth a book.
Shaolin
I used to be a night owl. It’s quiet, everything that has to be done is done and I can finally relax and think for a minute. But, between work, family and every other thing that pops up, I’ve been beaten into submission. Come ten o’clock and I’m yawning for real. Tossing and turning? Pssh…gimmie 30 seconds and it’s lights out.
Some Guy
Here, here. I love the late night. Right now my best bud Bueller, black and white Maine Coon extraordinaire, sleeps by me feet, I am watching Megashark vs. Giant Octopus (no lie, love the stupid) and I feel like I am outside the world.
Sleep feels like a commitment to enter my everyday troubles again. That is why I resist sleep. I have gap at the end of each day when I leave those troubles. It isn’t real, of course, but it feels real. It feels like a little release from the things that make me sad or anxious, and I love that.
fbihop
@Little Boots: Indeed.
And thanks for not mentioning that I wrote “hear” instead of “here”
dance around in your bones
@Mnemosyne: Right after the “Come on in” at the end of the video, doesn’t she offer him a vodka with a twist and a Quaalude?
FlipYrWhig
I am EXACTLY the same way, except married. Up until 3 or 4 am every night. When I had to teach at 9 it was horrible. When I had more of a normal job it had to be 10 to 6, because 9 was totally out of the question.
Not great for nutrition, though, to do what we do and have dinner at like 10:30.
Little Boots
@fbihop:
I try not to be a grammar queen. I try.
fbihop
@Little Boots:
Once I hit submit, I went away to Twitter and to other blogs where I comment more frequently than I do here.
And I came back and the first word I saw was that horrible mistake.
Yutsano
@Mnemosyne: I was extremely happy that the new gig at the IRS was almost exactly the same hours as my old job. I’m inherently an evening person, even though I rarely go out. But it seems my best functionality is after dark. Maybe the New York Dawg is right about me…I’m half-vampire. :)
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
night time is the best, though it became a bit more sucky over the last decade. we will tell the youngins one day that the 24 hr everything banking, groceries the entire meat space seemed like it would be open around the clock, eventually. it really felt like we were winning. even the corporate masters of prairie dog cube communities seemed to be on board.
somehow, with a woosh of panic and over reaction to not necessarily “knowing” who your neighbors were or worse, what they were doing. the 8a-6p existence backlashed across the fruited plains. for some, this gave the night back to the writers, the freaks, the misfits, and that is good. yet for some, what was lost was the mainstreaming of anomaly.
sure the usual suspects of crime, disorder, decay and general economic malfeasance will be blamed for the white flight of 24 hour america, but i think it was the freak within those conditioned to see freaks as foreign aspersers that killed it. they hate themselves for their freedom.
Villago Delenda Est
John, that “up at the crack of dawn” crap was the Army rousting you out of the fart sack and on to the company street (or troop street, for you cav types) to start doing PT.
I used to get up at the damn crack of dawn too, when I was under pain of imprisonment to do so (also I was setting the example, ugh…).
Out in the field, I was able to keep my own hours, usually, which meant 18 hour days and 6 hours of sack when I could get it, because Signal officers are subject to wake ups at ungodly times because some dumbass grunt or redleg can’t figure out how to operate the “on” switch of a radio.
SFAW
Yes, well, that was obvious, because most people that like being left the fuck alone have their own political blog that allows comments, and in which they write a Flame-O-Post every day or so, etc., usw.
Gee, maybe if I stoke up on the sleep-deprivation toxins (internally generated, of course), I can write stupid shit, too. [I mean, stupider than usual, of course.]
some guy
Bashir Brebesh said the same was true for the militias in Tripoli. On Jan. 19, his 62-year-old father, Omar, a former Libyan diplomat in Paris, was called in for questioning by militiamen from Zintan. The next day, the family found his body at a hospital in Zintan. His nose was broken, as were his ribs. The nails had been pulled from his toes, they said. His skull was fractured, and his body bore signs of burns from cigarettes.
The militia told the family that the men responsible had been arrested, an assurance Mr. Brebesh said offered little consolation. “We feel we are alone,” he said.
ALL HAIL NATO
Little Boots
actually, the important thing about night owl is …
show up!
where did you go, John?
Nobody gets to be shy at 2 am.
nalbar
Dawn is far and away the best time of day. Peace. The night animals are going to sleep, the day animals are coming out. I have seen my best wild life at dawn. You have it all to yourself. But the problem with dawn is it is short. Half hour to an hour and it’s over and the scramble begins. Noise takes over. Dawn starts slow and ends frantic. Doors slam, cars start, horns blare.
Dusk is different. It’s the opposite, it starts quick, and then fades into the slow drift of night, lasting hours. Dawn means being alone for minutes, dusk means the potential to be alone for hours.
It’s why you have a beer as the sun goes down, and a cup of coffee as it comes up.
.
Mnemosyne
@some guy:
Good thing Gaddafi never had people tortured and murdered. He was a swell guy, wasn’t he?
some guy
Luxembourg’s prime minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the eurogroup, said that the ministers would reconvene next week to review Athens’s conduct and possibly sign off on the new rescue plan.
The Greek government still had to close a €325m funding gap before it would qualify for a new bailout.
“Not everything that we need is on the table,” said Juncker.
Little Boots
@nalbar:
no,night is honest. surprisingly so. day is dishonest. really. always has been.
FoxinSocks
You know why you don’t want to go to sleep, John?
That’s your self-preservation instinct kicking in, because if that last picture you posted is any indication, Tunch is planning on killing you in your sleep.
some guy
@Mnemosyne:
like Hafaz al-Assad, a very bad man. and as we all know, nothing resolves BADness like Death From Above.
all hail NATO
Citizen_X
Heh. First Cole posts his picture, now he outs himself as a Goth.
Violet
@John Cole:
Write about politics according to your pets. A picture book. It would sell like crazy. All proceeds to charity.
Little Boots
john, just post something truly honest.
right now.
do it.
TOP123
@Some Guy: 2nd Para: what a great comment. Thank you and amen.
Mnemosyne
@some guy:
And when the leader of a country hires mercenaries to kill his own people because his army won’t do it for him, we should let him, because being bombed by NATO is, like, totally worse than being killed by your own leader.
Can you at least put the semblance of a coherent argument together? I mean, something other than, “Fuck those Ay-rabs, let them kill each other off if they want to.”
suzanne
Once again, I concur with you, John.
I have a form of epilepsy that can cause sleep seizures, and it’s important for epileptics to get regular and enough sleep every night. And my company is really fussy about the hours of operation; we are 8 to 5, bare minimum, damnit! And yet, it’s almost 11 pm, and what am I doing when I should be sleeping?
Fucking around on Balloon Juice.
Little Boots
john, this is what gets me. you send out this beautiful post, this really interesting stuff, and then you seem to walk away from it. don’t walk away from it.
you were right. you are right. stop playing around.
some guy
I, for one, feel extremely proud that we live in a day and age when Greek pensioners are forced to pay their fair share of the costs of removing Colonel Qhadaffi from power. no more slackers
srv
@Some Guy: @@nalbar: Marcellus Shale, Public Dick:
9) Poetry of the Interons
SFAW
John –
Maybe you and Tony Todd could have a long discussion about staying awake for extended periods.
some guy
@Mnemosyne:
there was a revolution in Libya, post Tunisia and post-Tahrir. NATO and Qatar and the Hose of Saud made sure that didn’t happen. before it began
Donald G
Whenever school’s not in session, my late adolescent/early adulthood aged children go nocturnal, and I’ve been seriously keeping vampire hours since last April. It’s not uncommon for me to be up at 4 a.m., grab what sleep I can, get up at 6 a.m. to get my youngest to the train station to catch her morning train in to school, come back home, wake up the wife so she can head in to teach her classes, then take the rest of the morning to sleep, waking up for good anywhere between noon and three.
I’ve always hated bright sunlight and summer heat, and I hate being out in crowds or dealing with traffic. I can run out in the daytime occasionally for quick errands like grocery shopping, but nighttime is when I come alive. I was never a morning person as a kid, and that has apparently continued well into adulthood.
I have tried to get back on a civilized schedule this winter, but if I fall asleep around nine-ish p.m., I’m up again 2-3 hours later. If I manage to get to bed around midnight and sleep until 6 a.m., then the next day, I’m back to falling asleep around 4 a.m.
And to tell the truth, I value the solitude, the “me-time” of those hours when the rest of the world is asleep.
SFAW
Just as long as those same Greek pensioners don’t get forced to pay for sluts getting The Pill for free. THAT would be a crime against humanity.
John Weiss
John,
My dear wife and I always feel better when the sun goes down, and I think that we always have. I cannot explain this phenomenon. Just a fact.
BTW our incisors aren’t especially long, either. And one of us is a vegetarian.
Go figure.
Yutsano
@some guy:
LOLWUT?
Mnemosyne
@some guy:
Yep, Gaddafi was a freedom fighter who was fighting a revolution until mean ol’ NATO intervened. You sure got me there. Tell me, if Gaddafi was a freedom fighter leading a revolution against … someone, why did he have to hire mercenaries to fight for him?
Or are you building a grand conspiracy theory where there was a revolution that was, like, totally winning (except for, you know, Gaddafi slaughtering them) until NATO secretly substituted their own fake revolutionaries?
Redshift
I was born at 11pm, and I’ve been a night owl my whole life. I never took 8 or 8:30am classes in college, no matter how interesting they looked, because I knew I’d never make it to them. Luckily, I found my way into commercial software development, which tends to be rather… relaxed about work hours as long as the job gets done. At one company I worked at, the VP of engineering actually announced “I don’t want to set working hours, but if everyone could try to get here by noon, so we all overlap at least a little bit…”
Staying up late is the only way to live. The only time I want to see dawn is if I’ve stayed up all night.
Citizen_X
Spock has a beard in your universe, right?
Little Boots
@Redshift:
now if the guy who started this whole thing could show up. that would be great.
Mnemosyne
@John Weiss:
That’s less of a defense than you might think. Is that one particularly fond of carrots?
John Cole
@Little Boots: I didn’t walk away from anything, I tabbed out to watch some cooking instructional videos. I’m also reading about the dash diet, and checking this blog out about the Paleo diet- she’s really funny.
I actually read a ton of comments. I just don’t think every one deserves a response.
Little Boots
@John Cole:
I still think you’re awesome.
but you can be prickly.
Redshift
@Donald G: Weirdly, even though I’m a night owl, I like sunlight and heat, too (as well as sunny and cold.) Just not early mornings.
some guy
allahu ahkbar, Heretic Hamza Kchgra has finally been captured. Malaysian Police make sure the heretic will be returned to the Hose of Saud to face his just punishment.
don’t hold your breath for the NY Times report on this.
http://www.bernama.com/arabic/v2/news_details.php?news_cat=upd&id=34771
all hail NATO/Greek Pensioners.
piratedan
@suzanne: just as long as you’re typing with protection, Congress doesn’t have to know….
Little Boots
and I still think your saga is good enough for a book.
You kind of grew up with these internets and went in a different direction, too.
Rawk Chawk
John, Night People rule.
I have always been a nocturnal creature, even as a child. Many, maybe most, creative types are so.
I do a lot better with work and life when I fit my schedule as closely as possible to my natural sleep/wake cycle, not the one society tries to impose on us.
Generally, I get up at 10am and hit the sack again around 2 or 3am. Works for me.
Oh, and self righteous morning people should be shot.
some guy
@Mnemosyne:
fuck off, learn to read.
Mnemosyne
@Yutsano:
Why do I keep thinking of old Sanka commercials? “We’ve secretly substituted our fake, NATO-sponsored ‘revolutionaries’ for the real thing. Let’s see what happens.”
But, sadly, despite my brags of night-owlitude, I started nodding off around 7:30 tonight, so I have to knock off early and head off to bed, so I’m not going to get to hear what the grand conspiracy theory is.
pseudonymous in nc
I’m another night owl. I remember listening to strange foreign radio stations in the small hours, when the signal was at its strongest. Learning about baseball from Armed Forces Radio broadcasts strafed with static, punctuated with spots about sexual health instead of adverts on the feed.
I like the quiet, the stillness, and the sense of a fraternal bond between other people up late. At least, until it hits the time that Scott Fitzgerald called the real dark night of the soul, at which point you’re left with the choice to sleep, or to run into dawn from the other side.
some guy
And when the leader of a country hires mercenaries to kill his own people
HOW dare you speak of President Andrew Jackson in such clearly libelous terms, sir?
Little Boots
and I love Doug getting a Moore award from the sully.
makes me love Doug all the more.
some guy
A source in the international police “Interpol” in his remarks, told Bernama today, Thursday, he was arrested Hamza Kchgra upon his arrival to Kuala Lumpur International Airport by Malaysian police after he fled from his country
Mnemosyne
@some guy:
The funniest part is that you actually seem to think you’re making a coherent argument. NATO should have bombed Andrew Jackson if they wanted to be morally consistent about acting against leaders who kill their own people?
ETA: I’m sure NATO will hop in their time machine and get right on that.
CaseyL
I dunno, Cole. You go through phases: weeks of constant socializing, going to conventions and parties and hosting dinners for a dozen people… and then you turn into the Leave Me The Fnck Alone Man. I don’t think either of them are the “real” you; they both are.
I’m not nearly as sociable as I’d like to be. I’ve lived alone too long and gotten to like it too much. Plus my bestest buddies either live too far away for spur of the moment activities, or are solitary homebodies like me.
Little Boots
uh oh, the bitterness begins.
Little Boots
so he goes through phases?
good for him.
the important thing is he shows up on his blog occasionally and says what he’s going through.
that’s the whole point, after all.
Yutsano
@CaseyL: You realize this just screams for another BJ meet-up, amirite? :)
Martin
Hey, check out Cole down here with the riffraff. Welcome to your evening shift. Yutsy is our leader, on account of him working for the usurper and able to call in drone strikes on anyone who tries to cheat on their cost basis.
dead existentialist
GODDAMNIT!! YOU KIDS GET TO BED, NOW, BEFORE I HAVE TO COME UP THERE!!
*pours another drink and scowls at the darkness
Martin
@Mnemosyne:
Well, he is. Unfortunately the stroke he’s having right now is turning it all into word salad. Anyone have an aspirin he can take?
Little Boots
@Martin:
the riffraff are getting restless.
but we do like our Johnny.
we do.
some guy
“HE KILLS HIS OWN PEOPLE”
Alert NATO, Alert Greek Pensioners, Alert the Hose of Saud
ABL
I actually like winter in LA because the sun goes down at 5, but it’s not ass-cold out.
I get nervous when the sun is out. It’s like I’m supposed to go out there and grab life by the balls. Well, I don’t feel like it. So go away, Sun.
Another benefit of LA: it’s always nice out, so you don’t feel the pressure of having to go outside and go to the park or on a hike or whatever else because you know what? Tomorrow will be 75 degrees and sunny again. Best to stay indoors and wait for sundown.
Redshift
@dead existentialist: hee hee hee! bounce, bounce…
Little Boots
and some of us like ABL too.
Mnemosyne
@Martin:
I’m trying to figure out why a guy who’s fleeing the Islamic religious police tried to hide out in another strict Muslim country. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to try and get to a secular country where you could claim religious asylum?
Little Boots
and Tina:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0sAgm9Vz50
Martin
@ABL: Actually winter in LA pisses me off. It’s nice enough during the day that I want to go out for a ride, but the sun is only out when I’m at work. Fucking work. I want to retire, but I’d have to convince my wife to live in a VW bus, and I don’t think she’s down with that.
some guy
(Washington, DC) – The Obama administration’s decision to move forward on a $1 million arms sale to Bahrain sends the wrong signal to a country that is engaged in serious human rights abuses, Human Rights Watch said today.
“Bahrain has made many promises to cease abuses and hold officials accountable, but it hasn’t delivered,” said Maria McFarland, deputy Washington director at Human Rights Watch. “Protesters remain jailed on criminal charges for peacefully speaking out and there has been little accountability for torture and killings – crimes in which the Bahrain Defense Force is implicated.”
alert all Greek pensioners. allotments will cease to be cut when abuses stop. for ONE MILLION DOLLARS
Yutsano
@some guy:
This sounds strangely kinky…
@Martin: I make no claims to leadership. I don’t have the wherewithal for that. I did, however, get to issue a bunch of levies today. So that was kinda fun.
ulee
Little Boots, didn’t you used to work at the Overlook Hotel?
JordanRules
What a topic and illiciting some fascinating comments. I pretty much could figure you were like this, and like me in this regard Cole, but it’s nice to hear folks speak on it at BJ. I’m avoiding sleep right now and the other 40% of the time I’ve got insomnia and that final 10%, I sleep like a baby and find my empathy for what the good sleepers and day keepers live and feel like.
I have been an owl since I can remember. I love, love, love the night for so many reasons. Tip ‘o the hat to the fellow travelers representin’.
I’ve had some deep thoughts about it over the years and I know my tendency to be a freedom addict plays a part. There are some power issues present I’m sure, fighting off the mystery of slumber so close to death. Then there’s the whole light=good, dark=bad dynamic. There’s a lot to be said and thought about it and I’d rather do it during the hustlers hours.
Little Boots
here’s the thing, John, nightime is to unwind, and get silly.
get silly, John.
you know we like you, just post what you want now.
some guy
@Mnemosyne:
I’m trying to figure out
yes. we understand.
Little Boots
@ulee:
what a drop!
Martin
@Mnemosyne: Because the Hose of Saud is short and can’t reach the other Muslim country, and even if you put a sprayer on the end and turn the pressure all the way up, it still won’t reach.
some guy
Pearl Roundabout or Lulu Roundabout (Arabic: دوار اللؤلؤ(ة) Dawwār al-luʾluʾ(ah), “Roundabout of the pearl(s)”) was a roundabout located near the financial district of Manama, Bahrain. The roundabout was named after the pearl monument that previously stood on the site and was destroyed on March 18, 2011, by government forces as part of a crackdown against the 2011 Bahraini uprising.[1]
The war was preceded by protests in Benghazi beginning on 15 February 2011, which led to clashes with security forces that fired on the crowd.[46] The protests escalated into a rebellion that spread across the country,[47] with the forces opposing Gaddafi establishing an interim governing body, the National Transitional Council.
The United Nations Security Council passed an initial resolution on 26 February, freezing the assets of Gaddafi and his inner circle and restricting their travel, and referred the matter to the International Criminal Court for investigation.[48]
Little Boots
even mellencamp:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWWMmxyKOR0&ob=av2e
some guy
Hose of Saud invasion of Bahrain, still under investigation by the UN SECURITY COUNCIL
still not breaking
veto veto veto
usa usa usa
Sarah Proud and Tall
Jesus. Don’t you people ever sleep?
Little Boots
@Sarah Proud and Tall:
we try not to make a habit of it.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Sarah Proud and Tall: It’s only 10:30 on the West Coast.
Sawgrass
I’ve always preferred working late. I’m an artist, so it’s quiet in the studio from 11-3am, and that’s my best time. Everybody else is asleep, I put on music or podcasts, and I focus like an obsessive– no distractions.
But my wife hates it when I’m not in bed at 2am, and I really really hate it when I have to show up at a client’s job at 9am next day. At 58, It’s hard to pull a full day after a full night.
Still, I’m an artist, and somehow we make a living at this.
Beats workin’.
These late-night threads are great. Promised I’d get to bed by now, tho not sleepy. Guess I’ll have to catch up on you all tomorrow.
JordanRules
And shout out to all my 3rd shifters who don’t necessarily want to dance in the pale moonlight, but have to.
some guy
@Sarah Proud and Tall:
florida says no
Martin
@Yutsano: There are those that are born to greatness and those that have greatness thrust upon them. You’re at least one of those.
I’ll be sending you a check for $16,000 in 2 months. I’d like it to go to the National Science Foundation, if you wouldn’t mind. There isn’t a line for that on the form.
piratedan
@some guy: who knew that he was related to Casanova Frankenstein?
Little Boots
and let’s get John, the alleged night owl, out here.
he was starting to get fun, I could tell.
Martin
@Sarah Proud and Tall: My goodness, all the important people are showing up tonight.
ulee
@Little Boots: All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
some guy
I’m trying to figure out why a guy who’s fleeing the Islamic religious police tried to hide out in another strict Muslim country. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to try and get to a secular country where you could claim religious asylum?
fuck off. learn to read. this particular thinker will be dead soon, courtesy of the Hose of Saud and Greek pensioners and American taxpayers. all hail Interpol
Little Boots
@ulee:
true.
wish he’d get how much people actually just like him.
Yutsano
@Sarah Proud and Tall:
Define sleep.
And it’s 10:46 PM and my laundry just finished washing. I’ll go load into the dryer here in a moment.
@Martin:
Please tell me this is related to a business matter. Otherwise we need to have a nice long talk about withholding and W-4 forms.
Little Boots
and more of that other johnny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4KUmm0XsLY&feature=related
The prophet Nostradumbass
@ulee: indeed.
MacKenna
I like the nights too. It’s peaceful.
When I retire I plan to nap in the afternoons and stay up late.
Donut
@ABL:
February 10th, 2012 at 1:24 am
Winter in LA is fine. But winter in Santa Barbara is exquisite. I like it up there since it is a few tocks cooler and less population dense, and you’re never far from the water. If cost of living there hadn’t killed us, me and Mrs. Donut would still live there. Talk about moving back all the time.
Anyway , I started working from home in October and am still being productive, but basically since I don’t have to commute, my body clock has totally reset to night shift. When I had to drive 35-40 miles to an office, winding thru miserable Chicago-land traffic, I had no choice but to become and early riser. Gladly back to a normal pattern, for me.
Suffern ACE
@Mnemosyne: Well, it didn’t say he was planning to stay. Ten thousand people post up to a facebook page calling for your death, and 30,000 respond to your tweet that whipping isn’t good enough, and you kind of go wherever you might have a friend to hide you.
Little Boots
@Donut:
jealous, on so many levels.
Politically Lost
Worked graveyard at a gas station for about a year when I was 19. It seriously fucked me for being a morning person ever since.
2am to 10 has been my natural sleep pattern since those days.
But, of course, my current life requires 8-5. Ugh…
One semester in college , I took four night classes and did the best in school I had ever done before.
I should just try and adjust my life to it instead of always fighting sleep deprivation.
some guy
where you could claim religious asylum?
Egyptian police shot dead two African migrants on Sunday as they tried to slip across the Sinai peninsula desert border to Israel, a security source said.
The source said a police patrol ordered them to stop and opened fire when they did not. The dead men were not carrying identification documents but were believed to be African.
Egyptian police have stepped up efforts in recent months to control the border with Israel, after an increase in human trafficking through Egypt. At least 19 migrants were killed by Egyptian border guards last year and seven this year.
alert all Greek pensioners!
Sarah Proud and Tall
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
True, but it’s usually deserted in here by now.
It’s quite exciting.
ulee
@Sarah Proud and Tall: Tak!
piratedan
aye… i’m kinda amped up myself… looks like I’ll be able to finally go home next week. So i’ve been busy getting boxes and paperwork ready all this week in anticipation. Still have about a 1500 mile drive ahead of me and a minivan to load, but the thought of sleeping in my own bed and tripping over my own animals has me geeked.
some guy
but were believed to be African
alert all Greek pensioners
Little Boots
love this time of night.
some guy
The expansive diplomatic operation and the $750 million embassy building, the largest of its kind in the world, were billed as necessary to nurture a postwar Iraq on its shaky path to democracy and establish normal relations between two countries linked by blood and mutual suspicion. But the Americans have been frustrated by what they see as Iraqi obstructionism and are now largely confined to the embassy because of security concerns, unable to interact enough with ordinary Iraqis to justify the $6 billion annual price tag.
Little Boots
the most interesting people start showing up, although slowly.
Sarah Proud and Tall
@ulee:
Gesundheit.
Little Boots
@some guy:
gee, they don’t love us nearly as much as we told ourselves they would.
how stubborn of them.
some guy
The Obama administration’s decision to move forward on a $1 million arms sale to Bahrain
But the Americans have been frustrated by what they see as Iraqi obstructionism and are now largely confined to the embassy because of security concerns, unable to interact enough with ordinary Iraqis to justify the $6 billion annual price tag.
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email [email protected] to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0976ef5e-5248-11e1-a155-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1lxe4z3zZ
Libya’s foreign minister says the interim government cannot stop Libyans from joining the Syrian uprising, as Tripoli takes the hardest line in the Arab world against the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
On Thursday, Libya’s transitional government gave Syrian diplomats 72 hours to leave the country, just days after it handed the Syrian embassy in Tripoli to the opposition Syrian National Council – the first country to take this step.
ulee
@Sarah Proud and Tall: Thang you. Thish cold won’t quit. Tak.
hitchhiker
@Violet:
second that.
Martin
@Yutsano: It’s arriving at a 15% rate. Maybe I should run for President?
some guy
@Little Boots:
damn Greek pensioners, no consideration for what we have done for Western Civilization
Suffern ACE
@Martin: I think it’s too early. But if you keep it at 15%, in a few years Americans Elect will have to take your offer seriously.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Confirmed night owl here, have been for most of my life. I’ve never been a morning person unless you count not having gone to bed at all the night before. Used to go to bed about 6am and get up about 2pm. Now I nap for a couple of hours in the late evening and get my sleep from about 8 am to 2 pm. I handle my customers and some work from 3 pm to 7 pm and then solely work from then until I get done with that days work. I make my own hours so I can get away with it. :)
My wife is a morning person but my hours awake overlap hers quite well so we’re able to make it work for us. Our kids take after me, they both prefer the late night life. Some people look at my hours like I’m some alien but they work well for me. Whenever I’m off of my schedule I seem to have a crappier day.
Just like morning people. :)
Little Boots
@some guy:
yes, them too.
I blame Athens.
maybe Sparta had the right idea.
Yutsano
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
If all goes well and I get to my career goal in the IRS, I get to do this too. Within reason, since I’ll be required to meet with folks. But no real set schedule. :)
@Martin: I’d be down for that. Should we call Nader for tips?
Little Boots
and because I’m in a mood and because nobody looks at these anyway, I give you the gift of Patrick Swayze:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeT5-lw381E&feature=related
Little Boots
oh sadness. this place is sleepy too.
Little Boots
I blame John Cole, who promised to be awake all night, and then .. wasn’t.
Redshift
Great hangout, but sadly, there are limits to my night-owlitude. G’night, everybody.
Little Boots
@Redshift:
fine.
blame john.
Gretchen
That’s why I’ve worked night shift for the last 15 years.
Little Boots
John, your blog, your rules.
I respect that. I do.
but why say one thing and do another?
where are you?
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Yutsano:
Many of my customers are day workers and my hours allow them to see me without having to drop by on their lunch or make some other arrangements. Some mention that I have odd hours but when I point out how convenient my hours are to them they agree that if it works for me then it works for them. ;)
I hope you get what you are aiming for soon. There’s nothing like being able to set your own schedule, it makes for less stress.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Little Boots: Not going to bed doesn’t mean the same thing as “obsessively reloading the pages on his blog, looking for new comments”.
Little Boots
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
fair enough.
Yutsano
@Odie Hugh Manatee: It’ll take some time. There’s an education requirement involved (long story short: I have to become a CPA) but I get that under my belt and the rest will come together pretty easily. Plus that gives me options. :)
ulee
@Little Boots: You’ve been funny tonight…I do like you.
Little Boots
@ulee:
aw, I like you too.
And despite the bitching, I do like this site, and its owner.
Samara Morgan
why the fuck do you let EDK post here still?
he is destroying valuable insomniagametime for me.
read this.
EDK version 2009
Samara Morgan
@some guy: Our Friend Turkey is also supporting the anti-Assad forces. As is the Muslim Brotherhood.
this is all making Our Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Israel very, very nervous.
Do you know the difference between Libya and Syria?
Syria has a border with Israel.
;)
Samara Morgan
j’aime la vie nocturne.
i have that on an Urban Outfitters belly shirt.
i so do not belong here.
Samara Morgan
here is something deep, juicers.
Culture doesnt shape society as much as society shapes culture according to its needs.
ponder that.
;)
SFAW
Little Boots @ 154
Just a guess, but, I would think it’s because:
Not unlike Calvinball, except Cole has more scruples.
Raven
Off your ass and on your feet
out of the shade and into the heat!
wormtown
@John Cole: Make a book with all the great pet stories that have been posted on this blog. You could start with your own pet stories (I still remember the post about going to the shelter and seeing Lily for the first time) and add the best of the bj’ers. There are more than a few that have brought a tear to my eye. I think it would be way better than views from a window :),
amk
If you’re planning on keeping wide awake at night, you might as well get yourself a wifey.
Ben Cisco
But do you love to boogie?
ZB IV
Ok. I’d like to put a McMegan argument out there. If giving any money to PP is akin to supporting abortion, then anyone driving a car getting less than 20 mpg should get locked away in Gitmo.
To explain, some oil producing countries support terrorism. So using more oil than is absolutely necessary supports terrorism. Thus, anyone driving a car that gets less than 20mpg should be indefinitely detained for supporting terrorism.
Full Disclosure: I, myself, would not advocate for this policy as it would get me locked up as well. I am merely attempting to point out the full absurdity of a McMegan argument.
bob h
My happiest time is the morning before the old lady gets up, just me, my laptop, NPR, black coffee, and the dogs. Most of the people in Manhattan live alone, probably for reasons like yours.
harlana
i’m definitely a morning person – after years and years of working a rather stressful job, when i look back on it anyways, i used to collapse in a heap when i got home and i haven’t been able to break the habit yet, although i know i must. plus, i must have at least 7 hours sleep, preferably 8, in order to be marginally human the next day.
Ron
@John Cole: You could write a whole book titled “Peak Wingnut was a lie”
Sad Iron
Mr. Cole, please, offer one posting per day like this (or every other day). Seriously, it’s good for the blog and gets people to step away from the edge for a moment.
liberal
OT: “AP Source: Obama to change birth control rule”.
Cursory read implies it he’s not going to be offering them much.
liberal
Try having twin toddlers. The yawning starts in earnest at about 8:30 pm.
CaseyL
@Yutsano: I would LOVE another Seattle BJ Meet-up!…. Will try to rally the locals on a fresher post.
muddy
What I don’t get is how Cole complains bitterly about insomnia, and then turns around and says he loves to stay up late and is fighting the yawns in order to do so. wtf
libarbarian
Please don’t tell me that you haven’t received “propositions” from some of Balloon Juice’s more dedicated female readers. I would find that depressing. I always figured popular bloggers had some “groupies” of their own :).
Paul in KY
@Little Boots: I’m expecting a post where he tells you to fuck off.
justawriter
He’s forty one and his puppies are his babies
All the folks on the Internet say he’s crazy
Cause he blogs all night with his doggies on his lap
While glared at by a somewhat overweight cat
Hey John Cole, post a photo for me please
How bout a little Tunch from days gone by?
And did I hear you say, that come election day,
You’ll be hiding in your mansion in the sky.
(to the tune of Delta Dawn, if you couldn’t figure it out)
Paul in KY
@justawriter: You missed a word in this line ‘While glared at by a somewhat overweight cat’.
It reads better if you add ‘While being glared at by a somewhat overweight cat’
Good try though.
PooleBowman
I have always been a night person for exactly your reasons,
especially the 10 p.m. and phone call comments. You nailed it!
By the way, I have been reading your posts since 2004, and
you are the best!
fordpowers
@John Cole: Sleep when you’re dead.
Ruckus
A college biology prof’s first day lecture started out about day people and night people. Her advice was to figure out which camp you fell into and figure out how to work in the world at your best time. Some of the best advice I’ve ever heard. Trying to take an organic chem class at 8am is just wrong for me but at 2pm all was fine. Best shift I ever worked was 1pm to 11pm. Bars still going strong, all the young bucks who have to get up at 5:30-6:30 to make a buck leave by then… No alarm clock, no rushing in the morning. It’s almost a life.
KXB
@Shaolin:
Same here. On weeknights, I try to get to bed by 11:00. A big plus of being in Chicago is that Letterman comes on at 10:30. If I have a task to do, like a late night pickup from the airport, or an early morning drop off, I can handle that. But if I have nothing scheduled, I try to get at least seven hours a night. But, it is much easier for me to stay up later than it is to wake up earlier.
asiangrrlMN
Cole, I really feel this post. I’m a night person. Always have been, probably always will be. I like it because it’s as if the world is mine, and I like darkness better than sunlight. NO one bothers me at 4 a.m. except my critters, which is exactly how I like it.
ETA: Except for the fact that everyone knows I’m a night person and it’s easier to contact me at three in the morning than ten in the morning. But, still, no phone calls – just emails.